I just wanted to drop a note here about NextBuild which is a suite of tools for writing ZX Next software. Nextbuild comes with a library for Boriel's ZX Basic compiler that allows you to interact with the Next's hardware. Everything is packaged together which makes installing a piece of cake.
Boriels ZX Basic compiler is an awesome compiler that has been around for over a decade - with its flexible library design this allows Nextbuild to supply a library of commands so you can control Layer2, Sprites, Tilemaps, DMA, Copper etc.
Currently I use VSCode as the editor which brings many benefits such as syntax help, code completion, hover over keywords and problem matching. Nextbuild will work on Windows, Mac or Linux.
Setting up is really simple.
- Download and extract the NextBuild archive https://github.com/em00k/NextBuild/archive/master.zip
- Download and install VSCode https://code.visualstudio.com/Download
- Point VSCode at the Sources folder in the NextBuild directory.
- Load an example and compile with Terminal / Run Build Task, it should launch in CSpect
Some of the VSCode extension features :
Code completion / help
Hover syntax help (with links back to website help):
We even support next register information inside asm blocks, with information from the wiki
NextBuild comes with a bunch of examples, simply load up an example and choose Terminal, "Run Build Task". The source is compiled and this will output a NEX file.
Nextbuild also takes care of preloading the Next's memory banks with a command call LoadSDBank()
Here is a topdown example that is included
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOZ2uojDI8[/media]
And a platformer example:
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SISiFKHwSOo[/media]
And a New Year intro
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liuvtm3AhB4[/media]
Thanks!
https://github.com/em00k/NextBuild
http://zxbasic.uk/nextbuild/
Big thanks as always to Boriel for his continued support!